Legacy Barber Co., brings downtown haircutting to Upper Beaches

When Stefan Degale and Jaz Bailey noticed the small brick storefront, sandwiched between a realtor’s workplace and a nondescript condominium constructing, that they had a imaginative and prescient. “We noticed the chance to be on the forefront of change for an space that form of wants it,” says Degale.

To many, Gerrard Road East within the Higher Seashores isn’t precisely the peak of hipness, however is a household neighbourhood of towering oaks and century-old semis. “It’s just like the suburbs with a streetcar,” says Degale, 34.

He and Bailey are barbers — Degale was Bailey’s trainer on the Toronto Fade Grasp Academy, a faculty he ran till 2019. That yr, on Bailey’s thirty first birthday, they determined to group as much as carry a smooth downtown barber store to a neighbourhood higher recognized for its canine parks and yard gross sales. In January 2020, they opened Legacy Barber Co. within the unassuming Gerrard Road storefront.

Their store has the tony vibe of a cocktail lounge or artwork gallery. On the uncovered brick partitions, painted a gleaming white, hold florid hip-hop portraits by Toronto artist Nashid Chroma. A black and white barber pole spins out entrance.

The kind of precision cuts Legacy excels in — fades, lineups, combovers (the nice type) — might be unforgiving. “It’s the small issues that change it utterly from a superb reduce to an ideal reduce,” Bailey says, “particularly if you’re speaking about fading. One flick can mess up your complete haircut, and a pair extra may carry the entire reduce collectively.” They showcase their abilities on Instagram (@legacybarber.co), their web page filled with time-lapse fades and the ASMR rustle and buzz of clippers, blades and shears.

The neighbourhood quickly took discover. “It’s very Toronto,” says David Cathcart, 45, a father of three who has lived within the space for 4 and a half years. “I can go in there and get my haircut, after which some tremendous cool-looking man is available in and will get his haircut. And we’re all from the identical metropolis.”

“So long as you'll be able to create an surroundings that’s pleasant,” Bailey says, “folks from all walks of life are going to return out.”

By March 2020, Legacy Barber Co. was a vacation spot. Then got here COVID. Simply three months after it opened, the store was pressured to shut. It could keep shut for practically a yr in whole. Degale, who constructed railroads earlier than choosing up the clippers, took up daytrading to make ends meet, whereas Bailey made housecalls.

The enterprise survived by the loyalty of their shoppers. “Individuals requested us how we’re doing, purchased present playing cards that they nonetheless haven’t used,” Degale says. “We now have an ideal assist system.”

With the addition of brothers JR and Rezo Esquivel, Legacy is now a four-man crew. “We wish to keep lean and imply,” Degale says. “COVID confirmed us that it might all be taken away as rapidly because it comes.” He hopes the precautions Legacy and different salons have taken over the previous two years will defend his trade from being additional ravaged by an unpredictable pandemic. “Everybody’s masked, everybody’s gloved,” he says. “We solely go by appointment, so we all know who’s coming in, who’s going out, what time they had been right here. Barbershops might be one of many most secure locations to be throughout a pandemic.”

The shoppers are again, and with them, Degale and Bailey’s hopes for his or her neighbourhood. “It’s about neighborhood on the finish of the day,” says Degale. “We’ve gotten folks prepared for job interviews, for his or her weddings, for main components of their life. We wish to get again to that.”